I’ve been staring at this post for the longest time, trying to figure out what to say about these cupcakes. It’s not that I can’t think of anything- it’s that I’ve thought of too much! I don’t know whether to start with how much my mother and I love Star Trek and are super excited about the new movie and how we were going to go see it together at midnight May 17 but then dad just HAD to book their flight to Barcelona a day earlier than planned so we can’t see it together until June (I’m going to go see it this week anyway), or whether to talk about how I made these for her on Mother’s Day with the help of Brian, and we all loved them?

(Side note: are we at that point yet where I can type in run-on sentences while nerding out about sci-fi yet?)

Although, this is a food blog, and the shining star should be, well, the food. So I’ll talk not about my nerdy family (which is AWESOME), nor about the occasion I made these for(Mother’s Day/ STAR TREK), and instead break these cupcakes down and talk about them. I started with a vanilla cupcake, tossed in some blueberries, and topped with a chocolate buttercream.

I thought of these cupcakes a few weeks ago after an entire day of watching cupcake wars and wanting to make some kind of dessert to celebrate the release of the movie. Rather Cheap Oakleys than figuring out how to decorate the cupcakes all fancy-like, I just thought of “dark” flavors to put in. I used my favorite cupcake base from How Sweet it Is that I’ve used for other cupcakes, as well as modify the the buttercream to give it a nice chocolate-y takes. Dark dark dark. Like the new movie!

Makes 12 cupcakes.

For the Cupcakes:

1/2 c (1 stick) butter

1 C sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbs Vanilla Extract

1 and 1/2 C flour

1/3 C milk

1/3 C frozen blueberries, thawed

For the frosting

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 and 3/4 C powdered sugar

3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbs milk or heavy cream to thin, if desired

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

Whisk together flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.

beat the butter and sugar together in a mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add half of the dry ingredients and mix until combined; add the milk and stir, then add the rest of the ingredients. Fold in the blueberries.

pour into the prepared pans until about 2/3 full; bake for18-22 minutes or until the edges are golden, the centers are set, and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

To make the frosting: Sift together sugar and cocoa. Set aside. Beat the butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add the sugar/cocoa about 1/2 C at a time. If the frosting is too thick, slowly mix in cream until frosting has reached desired consistency. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.